OK, I got this link from the CBGB film producers and I think it's OK for me to post it, since the content is from frickin' Entertainment Tonight! Anyhow, this is the first look at the CBGB film, so let me know what you think, OK? I like to think that it looks like a good film!

http://www.etonline.com/movies/124603_Malin_Akerman_on_Playing_Blondie_in_CBGB/

OK, not only does this clip have Malin Ackerman (who did a great job as Debbie Harry, as far as I could see), but it also features Ashley Greene (the totally hot babe, famous model and film SUPERSTAR who plays Lisa Kristal (Hilly's daughter) in the film), and Johnny Galecki (best known from Big Bang Theory, who plays the dearly-departed Terry Ork, one of the most-neglected but most important people in the history of punk rock).

And it also has a bit of me in it! I am the big, ugly mug talking with Ashley Greene, who is the nicest "Most Beautiful And Sexy Woman In The World" I ever met, by the CBGB bar... Honestly, she was so awesome and so nice I was dumbstruck every time I spoke with her, which you can probably see from our scenes together... 

Other totally (and hot) nice babes I have had the pleasure to be acquainted with in my life:

Debbie Harry, who was always friendly and nice to everyone back in the day.

Niagara, of Destroy All Monsters, who's so smart and still nice to me all of the time.

Malin Ackerman herself, who I ran into at the airport on my way home, and hung out with during the film. Hey! This is a very nice person--and beautiful enough to come off as Debbie Harry.

Milla Jovovich, who posed for a cover of High Times magazine before she was famous... She had appeared in the film ""Dazed And Confused" and was hoping to push her music career. It was weird, she was star-struck to be hanging out at our place on 19th Street. I spent only a few minutes with her, she spent most of her time with our Music Editor Steve Bloom, but she came off as a very nice girl, very innocent, I hope she's still that girl. 

So here's to beautiful women everywhere, whether they are nice to us or not! In fact, here's to women everywhere, because I always think every woman I meet is sexy and attractive, in some way. But you know what? Ashley Greene is just a bit more sexy and beautiful! So here's to her future success as a film actor, hopefully including the CBGB Film! 

 

 

One of my favorite NYC bands of the 21st Century has been Peelander-Z. We reviewed their first CD on the PUNK Website (you have to scroll down a bit to see it), way back when, and once I saw them, I realized that they are one of those great rock 'n' roll bands that only come around once in a generation. Unfortunately, the world has yet to discover them!

Recently I had the opportunity to work with them, and drew the cover (and two interior pages) for a comic book they have produced:

The comic book came out great! There's also artwork by the band members and some Japanese artists. As always, I am honored to work with creative people from Japan, they just seem to have more respect for art and weirdness than most US people.

Bands like Peelander-Z are the reason I wish I could bring out new issues of PUNK magazine. (Also The Bullys, The 50Kaitenz, The Kowalskis, The Cyclones, etc. etc.

OK, here are a few more photos from my collection... Peelander-Z are the best band to take photos of: they are so photogenic, and put on the best show you ever will see. Best of all? Everyone smiles and has a good time during their performances. Who else can you say that about any band in the history of rock 'n' roll? Tell me! Because I think these guys are the first (since maybe The Coasters) and/or The Dictators who refuse he role) to make people laugh, smile and have fun... But to me, that's what we need more of... There are SO many heavy metal, prog rock and even punk bands that play depressing music.

What the hell is wrong with having a good time??? 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron Palillo, best known for playing the Arnold Horshack character on "Welcome Back Kotter" from 1975 to 1979, died in his sleep from a heart attack.

Ron went to Cheshire High School, in Connecticut, back in the 1960s at the same time I was stuck there. Back then he was famous for being involved in theatre: He started his own theatre group called The Blackfriars, who performed Shakespeare plays, and it actually made a profit! I once saw a performance of The Glass Menagerie that he directed and starred in at the high school auditorium. I guess he was some kind of influence on me, since I later started a local theatre group in our hometown (The Apocalypse Players). One of our last shows was closed down by the police in that same auditorium a few years later, and we were mostly doing Three Stooges vaudeville and Theater of the Absurd. Not exactly the highbrow stuff Ron aspired to... (My group never turned a profit, but then again, we never did Shakespeare, which is royalty-free!) Ron wasn't an acquaintance of mine--he was one of those "Big Kids" you  looked up to, the upperclassman when you were a freshman who was cool just because they were a few years older.

 

In the year I spent between high school and college I worked with his mom, Carmen, at a local department store, where she proudly updated me on his latest accomplishments (i.e. his role in a touring company as Woody Allen's character in "Play It Again, Sam"). What was always a bit weird to me was that Ron became an illustrator in his later career--like me! Also weird was how Ron disliked his own name, and kept changing it from Ron Paolillo to Ron Paul Little and then Ron Palillo... Also disappointing was how, back in the 1970s, he claimed he was from New Haven or Hamden, but never from Cheshire. Hey! Ron was from Cheshire, Connecticut! "A Nice Town!" I think this was part of the 1970s conformist culture, though. I am sure Ron's "handlers" encouraged him never to reveal that he lived in an anonymous shithole like Cheshire, Connecticut, especially since he became so famous. Later in his career, he admitted the obvious.

People forget now that The Sweathogs were like the second coming of Beatlemania when "Kotter" was on TV back in the mid-1970s, so Ron Palillo was like the Ringo Starr of the foursome. I certainly had this point hammered into my head when I worked at Bananas magazine in the 1970s, especially when Ron appeared on one of our magazine covers. I felt a weird sense of pride and bonding when that  happened... Like, here we were, two Cheshire guys, I wrote and drew the comic strip inside (and was producing PUNK magazine, while Ron was on the freakin' cover!... Maybe you just had to be there, but it was a weird moment for me. 

The funny thing is that (from the few times I met him in the 1960s in high school), Ron was the polar opposite of Arnold Horshack, who was a goofy idiot. Palillo was a driven genius, with a mind as sharp as a razor blade. It seemed like playing Horshack took something out of him, though. I always expected to see him do something else amazing, but I'm sure all the stress and success took something out of him. There's also something about making it to the top of the mountain...

I always hoped I'd meet up with him someday and we'd be able to talk about stuff like this, but as always, life is too short.

Ron was a wonderful person and he will be missed.

Okay, a few people gave me so much grief over my involvement with the CBGB film, for all kinds of stupid, selfish reasons. Anyhoo, I'm going to hold off on posting stuff about my trip for a little while. I don't want to add fuel to their fires. Apparently, some people hate all contemporary films, others feel slighted that they haven't been asked to participate in the film, and others are just cranky bastids who need to take a break. But I am proud of my involvement with the film and enjoyed everything I saw so far! So I'll be posting about it soon.

Meanwhile, I decided to search for my stuff on Ixquick.com, a great search engine that doesn't record your IP address. (Did you know that all of your searches on Google will be recorded for all time? Scary, right?) People give me grief over my Google images, maybe they can use this search engine instead? 

The first thing I saw was this posting on the Tokyo Fashion blog:

 

Apparently, this was not a professional photo shot and this beautiful young woman is not a model. The Website just happened to catch her in the street, liked her look, and wrote her up. Luckily, she was carrying one of my bags (produced by my friends at Rudie's).

Here's the original story:

Tokyo Fashion

I send out my thanks to all my friends at Rudie's! And to my friends at Morrison & Co.! Here's Rudie's clothing tag, which uses the image from the first-ever PUNK magazine t-shirt advertisement. Gotta love it!

Buy at Rudie's or die!